The Book of Man: Readings on the Path to Manhood [Hardcover]

It is out concern for the trouble that man is in today - that William Bennett has offered this text. The author uses stories & essays of both historical & contemporary figures to help aid in shaping boys to become men. Heroism is lacking in contemporary venues of entertainment & literature. This book is broken down into 6 sections...

Including:

Man in War
Man at Work
Man in Play, Competition, and Leisure
Man in the Polis
Man wth Woman and Children
Man in Prayer and Reflection

The text is portioned to be read & pondered daily. It is this reviewers opinion that Bennett has brought forth a tool worth owning & using to train, shape & grow boys into men. The author hits the nail on the head in many of the available essays.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Dr. William J. Bennett's Book of Virtues is a favorite in our house. At dinner time, bath time, or bed time, the children ask me to read a story or poem from "the big book," as they call it. And I'm always willing to; Bennett's Book of Virtues has as much to offer the parents as it does the children.

I expected the Book of Man to be like the Book of Virtues, only for little boys. But the readings are more for older boys or men. Still, the subtitle, "Readings on the Path to Manhood," is appropriate. After all, what man doesn't continue on the path to manhood?

Bennett asks:

"What does it mean to be a man today?...While the plot, actors, and scenes are constantly changing, the virtues, characteristics, and challenges of manhood remain the same today as thousands of years ago."

On how to be a man, Bennett says, "More can and should be said. That is what I offer here. There are examples worthy of emulation, stories worth knowing, lives worth studying and remembering, and counsel worth hearing..."

Bennett's quotes span the time from Pericles to Colin Powell, while the characters range from Robert Murray M'Cheyne to Jimmy Carter.

Stories about men like Theodore Roosevelt or Martin Luther King Jr. are always inspiring, and Bennett gives us plenty. But equally inspiring are the stories of men like Terry Toussaint, Fort Valley, Georgia's "proud sanitation worker." Toussaint was inspired by Martin Luther King's speech to a crowd of street sweepers in Memphis, TN:

"If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures....sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will have to pause and say, `Here lived a great street sweeper...'"

"For Toussaint, it's all part of the day's job. At fifty years old, he starts every day at 4:45 A.M. and never misses a day of work." "I'll always be the best that I can be at [whatever job I have]," says Toussaint.

Bennett examines manhood in every arena: Man in War; Man at Work; Man in Play, Sports, and Leisure; Man in the Polis (community); Man with Woman and Children (this section alone is worth the price of the book); and Man in Prayer and Reflection.

Not all of the selections are inspiring, nor do they all represent the best in man: "Marines are a different breed; we're made to go after people. If you're not killing someone or being killed, you're not happy." But, as Bennett says, there is something to be learned from each of them.

While my little boy isn't ready for this book, I look forward to our reading it together when he's older. I hope these selections will benefit, encourage, and inspire him as they do me. In the meantime, I'll continue to use this excellent book to help me down my own path to manhood.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Thomas Nelson.

A lot of us have figured out that there is a lack of male leadership in our culture these days. It's easy to lament this fact but more difficult to do something about it. William Bennett, the compiler of the excellent Book of Virtues, has done something about the need for real men in our culture. He's compiled a book, The Book of Man, that offers a great selection of short writings that act as a model for virtuous manhood.

I've been talking to my three sons about what it means to be a Christian man, and now that I have The Book of Man in hand I have my choice of stories, profiles, and speeches to illustrate what I'm trying to teach them. Bennett offers an excellent (but too brief) introduction and organizes his selections around 6 areas of masculine endeavor: man at war; man at work; man in play, sports, and leisure; man in the polis; man with women and children; and man in prayer and reflection. I'm especially glad to see the last two sections because our culture has some notion of men in the first four categories but not enough for men with their families and men with their God.

Bennett has done a good job of selecting a wide variety of writings related to manhood - enough to offer something for everyone. I especially like this because there's not only one vocation to which men are called, and The Book of Man offers a vision for men in six different spheres. The book is aimed at adult readers, but there is a lot that young men and older boys could benefit from, especially if they read the selections together with their father.

The Book of Man upholds a traditional, moral and religious view of man, even though many of the selections are from men who are not specifically Christian or even religious. What the selections do consistently, however, is to expect that men are moral creatures and must act like such in all spheres of life. Maybe Bennett should have called the book "Men Behaving Well."

My one complaint about the book is that the selections, while good ones, are all short (usually a page). This encourages only dipping into the minds and lives of men who are good examples, and not to engage them more deeply. Some of the men represented in the book are: Winston Churchill, William Shakespeare (Henry V), William the Conqueror, Sergeant York, Ronald Reagan, Douglas MacArthur, Teddy Roosevelt, Booker T. Washington, Pete Maravich, Davy Crockett, Nolan Ryan, Charles Dickens, St. Francis of Assissi, Robert E. Lee, and George Washington.

I'm looking forward to sharing this with my sons and recommend it as one helpful way to begin raising real men again.

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze book review bloggers program. The opinions I have expressed are my own and were influenced only by the quality of the book itself.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 98 reviews  3.8 out of 5 stars